Who is Kellie Dawn Pickler?

Who is Kellie Dawn Pickler? Pickler is an American country music artist and television personality. She gained fame as a contestant on the fifth season of the FOX reality show American Idol, eventually finishing in sixth place. In 2006, she signed to BNA Records as a recording artist, releasing her debut album, Small Town Girl, late that year. The album, which was certified gold by the RIAA, produced three singles on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts: "Red High Heels" at #15, "I Wonder" at #14, and "Things That Never Cross a Man's Mind" at #16. The first single from her self-titled second album is "Don't You Know You're Beautiful". It was released in mid-2008 and reached the Top 25. The second single from her self-titled album is "Best Days of Your Life" which she co-wrote with Taylor Swift.

Pickler was born June 28, 1986 at Stanly Memorial Hospital in Albemarle, North Carolina, to Cynthia Morton and Clyde "Bo" Raymond Pickler, Jr. Her mother was 18 years old when she gave birth to her and relinquished custodial rights to Pickler when she was two years old.Her dad was put in jail.
The major influences in her life are her grandfather, electrician Clyde Raymond Pickler, Sr., and grandmother Faye Pickler. She was reared in Palestine, a small town near Albemarle [1]. After her grandmother's death, she continued to reside with her grandfather and her younger sibling Eric until she became a contestant on Idol. Pickler graduated in 2004 from North Stanly High School in New London, North Carolina. She was a cheerleader and beauty queen. At her high-school commencement, she sang "On the Side of Angels" by LeAnn Rimes.

She worked as a waitress at a Sonic Drive In franchise and, in 2005, she made an appearance on WSOC-TV's Gimme the Mike! Charlotte contest. She finished in second place. She participated in the Miss America circuit and won the "Miss Stanly County" pageant at age 17 and subsequently competed for Miss North Carolina 2004. She dropped out and later focused on paralegal studies [2].

The 19-year-old Pickler auditioned for American Idol in the fall of 2005 in Greensboro, North Carolina. She sang both Kelly Clarkson's "Since U Been Gone" and Martina McBride's "A Broken Wing". The judges sent her to Hollywood. Pickler advanced through the semi-finalist rounds in February. On March 9, she reached the Top 12.

Pickler was among one of judge Simon Cowell's favorites. He once predicted Pickler would be in the final three, and said he preferred her over the previous season's winner, Carrie Underwood [3] Recognized for her "quirky" personality and Southern charm, Pickler gained attention on the show by saying that she had hardly ever performed before real audiences, and by mispronouncing words [4]. She was compared to Jessica Simpson in a March 27 story in US Weekly magazine entitled "Kellie: The Next Jessica Simpson", due to her "sweet Southern style and ditzy demeanor". Pickler has stated several times that she was not heavily exposed to modern pop culture.

Kellie Pickler and members of her band Joshua Henson, left, and Ryan Ochsner perform for U.S. service members during the first stop of the 2008 USO Holiday Tour on Ramstein Air Force Base, Germany, Dec. 16, 2008.

After her elimination, she appeared in numerous shows promoting the TV show and performed the song "Walkin' After Midnight" in some of her appearances.
On May 6, 2006, she returned to Albemarle, North Carolina, for a parade and a reunion with her father. She received a key to the city from the mayor of Albemarle. The mayor also proclaimed the day as "Kellie Pickler Day." Pickler also received numerous awards from local and statewide government officials praising her accomplishments as a contestant on the American Idol television show [5].
Pickler pursued her recording aspirations in Nashville, Tennessee, shortly thereafter. On July 17, 2006, she signed a record deal with 19 Recordings/BNA Records. She later announced it herself on The View. She was part of the American Idol Pop Tarts tour ensemble, performing for three months in various cities. During that period, Pickler worked on her album in collaboration with top industry experts in different cities wherever the tour took her [6].

Her first single, "Red High Heels", debuted on September 13, 2006, and its music video was officially released on October 20, 2006. It reached #1 on the GAC Top 20 Countdown on February 9th and received a nomination for the CMT Video Awards for "Best Breakthrough Artist Video" [7] [8].
Her debut album, Small Town Girl, released on October 31, 2006, topped Billboard's Top Country Albums and landed at #9 on Billboard Top 200 selling over 79,000 copies in its first week. Its sales made her the best selling new country solo artist of 2006. The album includes five songs that Pickler co-wrote with songwriters Chris Lindsey, Aimee Mayo and Karyn Rochelle [9][10] [11].

On January 18th, 2007, Pickler co-hosted The View and was presented with a gold record by Rosie O'Donnell, certifying that her album has gone gold. She also performed her second single "I Wonder", which is a personal song about her absent relationship with her mother, Cynthia Morton. It was the first performance of the song on national TV [12] [13].
Pickler was nominated for "Top New Female Vocalist" for the 42nd Academy of Country Music Awards [14].

She was also part of Brad Paisley's "Bonfires & Amplifiers" concert tour from April 2007 through October as one of the opening acts. The tour was booked in at least 37 cities in the U.S. including a couple of stops in Canada [15] [16].
On September 2007, Pickler released a version of "Santa Baby" for a Christmas country compilation. A month later, at the ASCAP Awards in Nashville, Pickler received a songwriter award for co-writing her debut single "Red High Heels". She performed her second single, "I Wonder", at the 2007 CMA Awards. The performance received a standing ovation. She was also nominated for the Horizon Award.

n November, 2007, Pickler appeared on a Celebrity Edition of the quiz show Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?, playing for the charities of her choice (American Red Cross and the AARP's Grandparenting Program) [17]. Worth a guaranteed $25,000, she was asked, "Budapest is the capital of what European country?". She replied, "This might be a stupid question... I thought Europe was a country?". She voiced that it might be a place where people spoke French, and then was repeatedly confused as to whether France really was a country or not. When told the answer was Hungary, she did not believe the host. She said, "Hungry [sic]? That's a country? I've heard of Turkey, but Hungry? I've never heard of it" [18]. The video has become an instant YouTube hit.[19]; however, the host also pronounced the name of the country wrong by explaining the name with saying "like I'm hungry" when in fact the name is pronounced "[hung-gary]". While attempting to help Pickler review her options in the quiz show, host Jeff Foxworthy asked her to "focus", to which she replied "I am . . . like, I'm listenin' to what you're sayin', but I only hear what I want to," to which Foxworthy replied, "That's just called being a woman." Pickler responded to this remark by saying "Oh."

Pickler was also perplexed when asked whether the piccolo belongs to the woodwind, string, or percussion musical family. In trying to reason out the answer to the question, she noted that "percussion starts with a p" and accordingly decided, "I'm just going to keep the p's together, and I'm just going to say percussion." ("Woodwind" was the correct answer.)[20]
During radio and newspaper interviews, Pickler commented that some people and media criticized her for her answers while ignoring her charitable effort. In The Arizona Republic, Pickler said "...no one even recognized that I won $50,000 for my charity" [21].
While on her first USO concert tour in Iraq, Pickler met a few people from Budapest, Hungary, who presented her with a flag of their country. [22] [23]

Kellie Pickler sings to service members during a USO show at Forward Operating Base Marez in Mosul, Iraq, December 19, 2008.
Following the release of the third single ("Things That Never Cross a Man's Mind") from her debut album, Pickler returned to the studio to work on her sophomore album. On May 8, 2008, her official wesbite announced that she would sing the first single from the new album, "Don't You Know You're Beautiful" at the Academy of Country Music Awards on May 18, 2008. Pickler has since stated: "I’m so excited to be performing on the show and doubly so, to be debuting the new single. It’s such a great song, with a positive message and it’s different than any other song I’ve recorded before." Her new single debuted on country music radio stations in June,[24]
Her second album, self-titled Kellie Pickler, was released on September 30, 2008[25], and debuted at number nine on the Billboard 200 chart, her second consecutive top ten album, and her second consecutive number one on the Top Country Albums chart.[26]
On November 12, 2008, she performed "Best Days of Your Life", her second single off her sophomore album in the CMA Awards. She was also nominated for "Best New Artist", but the award went to Lady Antebellum.
On December 31, 2008, Pickler was a correspondent in New York's Times Square for Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve with Ryan Seacrest on ABC.
On January 23, 2009, it was announced that Kellie signed a multi-million dollar endorsement agreement to become a celebrity spokesperson for Sexy Hair products.[27]

Pickler's father, whom she describes as an alcoholic and drug addict, recently served a three-year, nine-month prison sentence at Florida State Prison for aggravated assault and battery stemming from a 2003 stabbing incident [28] . He was released on May 6, 2006, a week after her elimination from Idol.
On February 26, 2007, she met her personal 'idol' and strongest influence, the country music superstar Dolly Parton. The surprise was arranged by Sony BMG Nashville chairman Joe Galante [29].
In 2007, Pickler was in a relationship with Nashville Predators player Jordin Tootoo and visited his family in Nunavut, Canada [30] [31] Later that year, the two broke up [32].

Pickler is close friends with Taylor Swift, who co-wrote Pickler's second single "Best Days of Your Life"[33], and with her American Idol roommate Katharine McPhee, for whom she was a bridesmaid at McPhee's 2008 wedding.[34]

In June, 2008, she joined close friend Carrie Underwood, a long-time vegetarian, in giving up eating meat. Pickler says she first decided to go vegetarian for health reasons, but a TV ad that vegetarian Pamela Anderson did for animal rights group PETA piqued her curiosity. "One night I couldn't sleep and I was up and just Googling random stuff and I'm like, 'Hmmm, PETA.' I saw all the videos and I just thought it was horrible. It's animal cruelty. A lot of it has to do with knowing what happens to the animals and it really bothered me and so I will not eat meat."[35]
Pickler has stated that she is a fan of NASCAR. She performed at the Orbitz 300, the season-opener of the 2007 NASCAR Busch Series Season.[36]. In 2008, she performed at the Food Lion Speed Street NASCAR 600 Festival, a weekend-long event leading up to the 2008 Coca-Cola 600.[37]
Pickler is currently dating Kyle Jacobs[38], who also co-wrote two songs of her second album: "One Last Time" and "Going Out in Style".

Kellie Pickler performs at the USO Holiday show at Kandahar Air Field (December 2008)
Pickler actively supports St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, where she helps raise funds and gives kids special visits. She also participates in charitable events to help raise funds for various organizations. She performed live to help raise funds for the "N. C. Children's PROMISE" to benefit the Children's Hospital in Nov. 12, 2006, [39] performed live to help refurbish the Hurricane Katrina damaged NFL Youth Education Towns Boys & Girls Club of New Orleans on December 16, 2006, [39] visited St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital on January 12, 2007, [39] and visited Pennington Elementary School in February 1, 2007. [39] “When you’re able to give back to your communities and organizations like St. Jude, it’s a great thing,” Pickler said. “It’s been a great experience, and I encourage anyone and everyone to help.” [39]
Pickler was part of a Country and Western artist studded online auction for charity by Mario Magro: Kiss for a Cause Foundation Celebrity Auction held June 15-25, 2007, in support of orphaned and abandoned children. The event auctioned off celebrity lip prints and signature pressed on the inside of Mario Magro Crystal Le Coop handbags at the 42nd Annual Academy of Country Music Awards. [39]
She has participated in two USO tours. The first, in late 2007 and early 2008, took her to Iraq[39] [22]; the second, in December 2008, included stops in Germany, Afghanistan, Iraq, Kosovo and England.[40] more